Aromatic compounds are useful as raw materials for production of electronic materials, medicines, agricultural chemicals, industrial chemicals and the like, and development of new production methods thereof is desired.
As a method of producing an aromatic compound having a 2-pyridyl group which is a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic ring, and an alkenyl group at adjacent positions of a benzene ring, there is reported a method as described below of reacting a compound having a 2-pyridyl group on a benzene ring with a brominated olefin compound as an alkenylating agent in the presence of a ruthenium complex (Organic Letters 2001, Vol. 3, No. 16, p. 2579-2581).

The above-described method, however, is not satisfactory from the ecological standpoint owing to use of a bromide as an alkenylating agent, thus, a production method which is improved in this point has been desired.